I like them all for some reason or another but here's my top picks.
III for Savage/Steamboat. VIII because Ric Flair was champ and had a great match with Savage. IX because of the ambience. X because Bret wrestles 2 times. XIII for Austin's performance XVII was just a great show overall XVIII Hogan/Rock XIX I was there live XX Benoit wins! XXII Foley/Edge
I don't think anything tops Wrestlemania X. Two of the all-time great matches (Bret/Owen and the ladder match), plus the classic ending of Bret regaining the title.
I don't know what is more disquieting -- the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes.
I would have to say X7, even though it ended on a slight downer. But that was maybe the greatest PPV ever.
A close second is the underrated XIV, which I think was the best show from top to bottom, but without a true classic. XX was too long.
I never quite see why X gets so much love. True it had two 4.5 or 5 star matches, but the rest was pretty forgettable. Sure Bret won the belt at the end, but I was never a big Bret fan, and the match was itself terrible.
Dean! Have you been shooting dope into your scrotum? You can tell me! I'm hip!
WrestleMania 2000 gets inexplicably shit on for having no straight singles matches, but it's got a pretty damn good average match quality. The three-way ladder match is the most epic and innovative of the series, the Angle/Benoit/Jericho match is some superfun stuff, and the Hardcore Battle Royal is the pinnacle of the 24/7 shenanigans. The main event is good too, despite everyone and their mother hating it for HHH going over.
WrestleMania XIX has two truly great matches going for it, too - Michaels/Jericho and Lesnar/Angle both easily top four stars. Add the ridiculously enjoyable Hogan/McMahon match, a fun-if-short tag title triple threat, and the best women's match in 'Mania history to the mix, and you've got a fairly great card.
But my all-time favourite remains 'Mania 20. It's got three bona fide WM classics (the Rock 'n' Sock Connection versus Evolution, Eddie's title defence and the main event) plus the pretty great Jericho/Christian/Trish match-cum-angle. Even the filler is entertaining - the two tag title matches move fast, the cruiserweight open is a silly spotfest, and UT/Kane is a great WrestleMania Moment.
To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires, and lights, in a box.-Edward R. Murrow
I think I'd have to go for X-7 too. I'm not in the slightest a Limp Bizkit fan but the 'My Way' Austin/Rock video package is a masterpiece and, here comes the hyperbole, encapsulates wrestling in the absolute peak of its modern day success.
Each year, in the months before Wrestlemania, I make a point to watch all of the Wrestlemanias in order from least favorite to most favorite (I usually do a bit of FF'ing on the lesser ones). Of course, this means I make a chart each year ranking the Wrestlemanias and I even have categories used to come up with the ranking (Main Event quality, # of good matches, Crowd atmosphere, etc.). They even can change year-to-year depending on my whims.
Long sad story short, this is my ranking of my favorite WMs best-to-worst:
1. III 2. X-7 3. 2000 4. VI 5. XX 6. VIII 7. X 8. 22 9. XV 10. VII 11. V 12. XIV 13. IV 14. XI 15. XIX 16. 13 17. II 18. I 19. IX 20. X-8 21. XII 22. 21
Wrestlemania VI - it was in Toronto (my home town) and it was what got me hardcore into wrestling. The media coverage, the TV, everything. Before WMVI, I was a casual fan, but this got me hardcore into it...and now, seventeen years later, and I'm still into it.
Second place goes to Wrestlemania XI - Even though most people panned the show, I still liked it. Bam Bam vs. Lawrence Taylor was one hella great match.
I've seen TWO movies so far this year: Because I Said So - (3*); Borat - (5*)
Originally posted by griffPretty shocked to see 21 at the bottom of your list...surely the Angle/Michaels bout and the first MIB match could shift it off the bottom?
Yeah, I can understand how people liked that one. It just didn't feel like WM to me. The MITB match didn't offer anything I hadn't seen before in the way of spots, the battle royal and "sumo" match was crap as was the women's match. I think EVERYBODY knew who was going to win the two world title matches and the UT-Orton match. I will say that the Angle-Michaels match was damn good and the Rey-Eddie match was inoffensive. It just felt like another PPV to me.
Who knows, maybe it'll move up when I redo the list this year. (And pretty soon, as there is not much time left to watch all of these until WM)
I don't know if it's the disconnect between my adult self and my youth, but I'm really partial to WMXX these days.
WM X-7 is still one of the best WrestleManias, too, but that ending always feels like a black eye to me. It's an easy #2 to WMXX, when it should be #1, but the ending to WMXX was so perfect while the ending to WMX7 felt so imperfect. The way things end makes all the difference for me when I watch PPVs. I'm just an asshole like that.
It used to be WMX or WMVI when I was younger.
WM21 and WM22 are both pretty underrated, but they're also very recent, so I don't blame people for not viewing those too highly. WM22 was a show that should have failed with the lineup it had, but worked in spite of itself. WM21 was predictable and had a dead audience for the most part, but was still a solid card. It was predictable, because every match ended the right way.
The really, really old ones I have a hard time watching these days. Even WM3, which is still a great event. Savage/Steamboat is still an all-time classic, but everything else is pretty drab.
You know what WM I really enjoyed, looking back on it all? WrestleMania 8. A great Bret/Piper match, the return of the Warrior, a great Savage/Flair match, it was in a giant dome. I liked that one. That makes me feel like a kid again.
I agree that Wm 19 is underrated. I even really liked the HHH-Booker match up, despite the ending. I think not knowing if Brock was dead or had a broken neck for a few minutes really took something away from the main event at the time.
But looking back, it was a great show, with the also underrated HBK-Jericho, which had a finish most people disliked. Maybe that is why there is such a lack of love for that show, the finishes.
Dean! Have you been shooting dope into your scrotum? You can tell me! I'm hip!